(Photo credit: University of Regina)

The Regina Urban Wildlife Research Program collected 50,000 hours of recordings in its first year. A year ago, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) and the University of Regina began tracking the wildlife in and around the city through a surveillance project called the Regina Urban Wildlife Research Program.

RSM Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Dr. Ryan Fisher says what they are really interested in is understanding how wildlife in Regina specifically responds to different levels of urban development and how the numbers of these different animals change as in a city environment as well as what types of different animals are in these different areas. For the program, the RSM set up 17 biodiversity monitoring stations that consist of trail cameras to monitor large mammals and microphones that record bird songs and bat calls. These stations are active for one-month periods in the spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Fisher says so far, the project has recorded 13 species of mammals on camera, ranging from moose to white-tailed deer to American mink. Interestingly, most of the observations of these large mammals occurred at night, when humans aren’t as active. Researchers have found the songs of 41 species of birds and bat echo sounds from the fall and winter recordings. The stations are evenly distributed at locations in the middle of the city, on the edges, and in more natural areas well outside the city boundaries. As the program enters its second year of operation, it plans to expand to more areas of the city. (with files from CKRM)